


Family of Choice

by Crazy_panda_25



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Love, M/M, Sadness, happiness, im rubbish at tagging, slight mention of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 01:56:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10821345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_panda_25/pseuds/Crazy_panda_25
Summary: Sirius and Regulus have an arguement about their family. Remus comforts Sirius afterwards and learns a few things about life being a Black.





	Family of Choice

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fanfiction quite a while ago and forgot to upload it. I apologise if it's bad. Blame past me!

The first few weeks of seventh year were uneventful for the four marauders. Full of teaches going on about NEWTs and how important they are. As if they didn't know already! James had finally managed to get a date with Lily Evans though so that is progress.

"Four weeks in and we're already swamped with homework," Sirius complains, glaring at his Muggle-Studies essay with contempt.

Remus and Sirius are sat at a table in the common room, attempting to get through as much of their homework as possible before they go to bed.

"We're at our NEWT level, Padfoot, of course we're going to have a lot of homework," Remus answers, adding yet another sentence to his Transfiguration essay.

"Ten pieces in four weeks though? I'm sure they're trying to kill us," Sirius says, scribbling down answers in his curly, neat handwriting.

"Remind me what the sixth step is to become an animagus again," Remus asks, dipping his quill in the ink.

"Sixth? To hold a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month," Sirius answers, absentmindedly as he continues his essay, "tastes disgusting as well, Merlin knows how we did it."

"Can't believe I didn't notice," Remus says, smiling at the memory and writing down what Sirius said, "the amount of times James choked on his words in class should have been a give away."

"Remember when he did it in defence and the professor just looked at him confused before telling him to do vocal excises when he gets up in a morning," Sirius says, laughing.

"As if James would ever need to excise his voice," Remus says, shaking his head with a smile, "he talks too much for his own good."

"Talking of Prongsey, where the hell is he?" Sirius says, leaning back dangerously on his chair.

"When you fall back and crack your head open, I won't be taking you to the hospital-wing," Remus says, pushing Sirius' chair forwards so it is safely on all four legs, "and I have no idea where Prongs is, Wormtail either to be honest."

"Wormy is with that hufflepuff-what's her name-Helen or something," Sirius replies, smirking, "crushing on him for years apparently."

"It's not uncommon to crush on someone for years before you ask them out," Remus says, smirking.

"True. Anyway back to the task in hand, where has Bambi got to," Sirius says, getting up, "you alright here if I go and look for him."

"I'm sure I can survive without you for a few minutes, Pads," Remus jokes, laughing.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Walking down the quiet corridors, Sirius sighs contently at the distraction from his mounting pile of homework. How he's going to handle revision on top of that later on in the year is beyond him. Sirius is shaken from his thoughts when he sees an all too familiar figure approaching him. Regulus.

"Fancy seeing you here, brother," Sirius says, smirking mockingly at the younger Black.

"Seems the people you most want to avoid always turn up," Regulus answers, coldly.

"That's not a nice thing to say to your brother," Sirius mocks, coolly, "no Slytherin company, I see."

"Could say the same about you, or have you finally come to your senses and ditched the blood traitors and mudbloods," Regulus asks, icily, dark grey eyes reminding Sirius of their father.

At the word 'mudblood' Sirius draws his wand pointing it warningly at his brother, "I've told you before, Reg, don't dare say that horrible word anywhere near me," Sirius says, angrily.

"And I've told you never to call me Reg again, you lost that right when you disgraced our family," Regulus snarles, teeth gritted.

"Our family was a disgrace years before I came along. With your twisted views and horrible loyalties," Sirius growls, gripping his wand tightly, "having fun are you, with your soon to be death eater pals? Do you really think they care about you, your friends? Don't tell me you think they would ever even think of risking their lives for you."

"And you care about me, do you? You didn't bat an eyelid when mother and father gave you a way out, you left without a thought about me so don't feed me some shit about you caring about me just so I'll all of a sudden discard all my beliefs and come running to you," Regulus spits, angrily.

"No, I forgot, you were always the perfect child. The child the family wanted. Easy to manipulate, weak willed, a child that they could shape to be how they wanted," Sirius says, bitterly, "But you know something, Regulus? I was never like them, never like you. I tried, more then you know, but I couldn't be who they wanted me to be."

"Liar. You never tried, you just always though you could do what you want and when someone said no you decided to become a rebel, a disgrace to the family," Regulus snaps, glaring at his brother, "all for your own selfish gain."

"Believe what you want to, brother," Sirius says, holding his brothers icy gaze, "but you are wrong, maybe someday you'll realise...and I hope for your sake it isn't too late."

"I'll never be like you," Regulus says, his voice quieter, reminding Sirius that the boy in front of him is his little brother, his brother that he comforted when they were shouted at by their parents, his brother that he would do anything to protect if he could.

"Be careful, Regulus, on whatever road you choose," Sirius says, putting his wand away before turning to leave, but stopping a few steps away and adding without turning around, "I do care, brother, more then you could ever imagine," with that the older Black strides off leaving his younger brother in his wake.

"I care too, Sirius," Regulus whispers into the silence, knowing his brother can't hear him anymore, before walking the other way his brothers words weighing heavily in his mind. It hits him soon after that he can't speak to anyone about what just happened, nobody would care.

  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sirius walks into the common room not that long later, mind working on over drive. He sighs in the acknowledgment that he will alway have his friends to talk to if needs be.

"Did you find him?" Remus asks, his warm, soft voice providing a welcome change from his brothers icy, cold one.

"No, must be snogging Lily in a cupboard somewhere," Sirius answers, his voice lacking his usual joyfulness so much he can hear it himself.

"You okay?" Remus asks, looking at Sirius as though he's trying to read him like a book. Knowing Remus, he probably is.

"Had a run in with my brother, didn't go so well," Sirius answers, he'd given up lying to his friends years ago about these sorts of things because he knows they always have a way to find out the truth.

Sirius proceeds to tell Remus everything about his encounter with Regulus, relocating the conversation to their dorm, taking their half finished homework with them to do later.

"Yeah, he pretty much told me that I abandoned him when I ran away, which is kind of true," Sirius says, sitting down beside Remus on his bed.

"You had to leave, they would have killed you otherwise," Remus protests, "surely he knows that."

"I pushed them too far that day, Moony. Maybe I did it on purpose or maybe it was an accident, I don't even know. What I do know, however, is that I could have kept my mouth shut," Sirius says, looking at his homework in his hand to distract him, "I deserved what I got-"

"Listen to me, Sirius, listen. No matter how much a child pushes you, it isn't right to do what they did to you. You could have died, Sirius, and you never, ever deserved that, no matter what you did or didn't do," Remus says, forcefully, "Regulus just doesn't understand."

"I did try, you know, I tried to be like them for years before I came to Hogwarts," Sirius says, quietly, this is one thing he has never told his friends or anyone for that matter, "I wanted to be the heir they wanted me to be but I just... I had my own ideas and even then I couldn't just sit back and pretend I believed what they told me, what they hammered into me, without giving my own input or asking why..."

"It's understandable to want to make your parents proud of you," Remus says, understandingly.

Sirius shakes his head, "they were never proud of me. I never realised that until I came here. If I memorised a book on our family tree in two days, I should have done it in one. For years I just thought that was how you motivate children to do more or that I wasn't doing good enough," Sirius says, softly, thinking back to the nights he'd spent in his room wondering how he could do better, how he could make his parents proud, "wasn't the best way to give your child even a bit of self-confidence, telling them they aren't good enough all the time."

"Where they the same with Regulus?" Remus asks, looking at Sirius sympathetically.

"No. He was the perfect child. Mother adored him from the day he was born and...I don't know what I did...back then...to make them care about him more then me...but that's how it was," Sirius answers, "I was the heir, put on earth for that purpose and that purpose alone and he was the child they actually wanted. It just so turned out that he was the one that listened to whatever they said, no questions asked."

There is a short silence before Sirius adds, "you must think I'm being stupid, wanting people like them to care about me..."

"No. It's not stupid at all to want the affection of your parents. Before Hogwarts, I always took it for granted how much my parents loved and protected me, I don't think it ever occurred to me that a child could live without that," Remus says, quietly.

"Until I was nine I thought all families were like mine. My cousin, Andromeda, you remember her?" Remus nods, "told me. I don't remember exactly what I'd done but I'd done something wrong and mother had...punished me. Andromeda and her family were staying over for Christmas that year and she'd found me in my room crying...god I remember it so well-"

*******************************************************************************

_Sirius sat in the corner of his room, holding his arm to his chest, tears falling down his pale cheeks. He hadn't meant to do it, he was just so late for dinner so he'd run down the stairs to make himself faster and accidentally tripped and fallen._

_"Sirius," Andromeda's soft voice says, opening his door to let herself in._

_"I'm sorry," Sirius had said quickly, wiping his tears from his eyes and standing up. He'd messed up again, he shouldn't be crying like a baby._

_"Don't be sorry, darling," Andromeda had answered, gentle, putting her hand on his shoulder to guide him to sit on the bed with her, "you've done nothing wrong."_

_"I did, I shouldn't have run and tripped. I embarrassed mother, father and myself with my incompetence and I deserved my punishment," Sirius had disagreed, quietly, "I shouldn't have disobeyed mothers rule against running inside the house."_

_"This isn't right, Sirius," Andromeda answered, looking at her cousin through her long dark eyelashes._

_"I know. I shouldn't have done it, I-" Sirius was cut off by his cousin._

_"No, no I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about them. They shouldn't have acted like they did. It isn't normal," Andromeda said, putting her arm around his shoulder making him flinch at the contact but relaxes slightly when he remembers it's just Andromeda._

_"I-I thought all families were like this," Sirius said, confused._

_"No, no they're not, Siri. In a normal family, if you'd tripped and fell down the stairs they would have fixed your injuries and lectured you in how unsafe it was and that they didn't want you to get hurt. Then they'd comfort you and make sure you're okay by fussing round you," Andromeda explained, sympatheticly._

_"Not our family though?" Sirius asked, sadly._

_"No, not our family," Andromeda agreed, sadly, "but we have each other and I can make sure you're okay."_

_"And I can make sure you're okay," Sirius said, smiling, "Drom?"_

_"Yes, Siri."_

_"Do normal families care about their kids?" Sirius asked, looking down at his hands._

_"Yes, they love their kids but our family is just-" she cut herself off._

_"Different," Sirius finished for her._

_"Come here, Sirius," Andromeda said, pulling Sirius into a stiff but caring hug. The first hug Sirius had ever received._

_"You're my favourite cousin, Drom," Sirius said, when they pulled apart, still a bit confused about what just happened._

_"The feeling is definitely returned, Siri," Andromeda answered, smiling at her younger cousin. Within a family of bitterness and hatred, they knew they had each other to seek comfort in whenever they need it._

*****************************************************************************************

"I've never told anyone about that," Sirius says, shaking his head slowly, "only me and Andromeda know about it."

"I'd feel honoured if I didn't want to hug you so much," Remus says, putting his arm around Sirius' shoulders but unlike the young Sirius in the story, he doesn't flinch in fear of being hit instead he relaxes into the young werewolf.

"I do care about him, Moony. Regulus, I mean," Sirius says, quietly, "he's been lead down the wrong path but he's still my little brother."

"I know, Pads," Remus answers, hugging the animagus close to his side, "you want to protect him, but you feel like you're too far apart by now to do so."

"Yeah," Sirius nods, pulling Remus into a proper hug now and holding on to him tight.

"We'll never leave you, Padfoot, ever. I promise you we'll always be here, I'll always be here," Remus says, softly in his ear, "I'll never let you be alone again, not like you were before, okay?"

"Okay," Sirius whispers, "I love you, Moons."

"I love you too, Pads," Remus whispers back, running his fingers through Sirius' long black hair soothingly.

"Hey guys, guess who just got off with a certain red head?" James shouts, bursting into the room and not even noticing his two friends jumping away from each other.

"I don't know, Prongs. Perhaps Frank or Kyle or Peter," Sirius says, pretending to think hard.

"No you dimwit, ME!" James annoces, smiling from ear to ear.

"Ohhhh! I never would have guessed," Sirius says, laughing.

"We're together now, as in dating, as in Evans and Potter," James explains, excitedly.

Remus glancing at Sirius, silently asking him whether he's okay now. The ebony haired boy just nods, smiling.

"So James how have you managed to swing that? Wouldn't have thought Lily would ever want to go out with a, how did she put it-" Remus teases, smirking at his friend.

"An arrogant toe rag," Sirius chimes in, laughing as James mock glares at him.

"She didn't know the true me and now she does, she's fallen in love with me," James boasts, jumping up and down.

"TMI mate, what you and Evans get up to in between the sheets is strictly your business, Moony and I don't want to know," Sirius jokes, laughing.

"I agree," Remus laughs.

"I hate you both," James mutters.

"Love you too," Remus and Sirius chime in together.

  
Looking at two of the most important people in his life, Sirius decides he's going to be okay. Even with Regulus hating him and the war raging just outside the secure grounds of Hogwarts. He knows that with people like this stood beside him, they can face anything. Can't they?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave comments and/or kudos, I love getting feedback.


End file.
